Daughter of The Darkness

Chapter 17

Elfreda clung herself against the side of the cliff face as another huge boulder flew like a ball though the air. She covered her ears as the huge rock crashed above her head. It smashed into tiny pieces which rained down onto of her. Luckliy she had her head covered by her hood otherwise she surly would have sustained some injury from the falling stones.

All of a sudden the ground began to move beneath her feet. The pathway which she clung to so dearly to seperated away from the side of the mountain. It was another stone giant. It stood, the noise it made was like an earthquake. Once again it was hit by another boulder. Elfreda stumbled but clung on for her life, her feet hung beneath her trying to scramble for a foot hold. Finally her boots slotted into a gap and Elfreda was able to pull herself up onto the ledge. She lay their, clinging to the rock, breathing heavily, she need to get out of here and fast.

The company were also in a spot of trouble. They were a few meters in front of Elfreda but because of the eruptions coming from the stone battle they did not hear anything.

A crack spilit between one half of the comapany. It started to seperate and the dwarves started to call to each other.

"Kili, grab my hand!" cried Fili but it was no use. Kili and the other half of the company were taken away from the rest of the group on one of the legs another stone giant. There were shouts from all of the dwarves to try and stay in contact with each other, to tell then were they were heading and were they would meet if they were to get seperated.

Two of the tree giants stood in a boxing match, throwing earth shattering punches at one another. The giant that Elfreda was one took a right hook at the one which the dwarves were on. It fell backwards. One of the legs came very close to the side of the rock. When this happened, one half of the dwarves jumped across to the safer path. Elfreda was partly releived when she saw that her friend Thorin was on the safer side but now she had the other half of the company to rescue.

Elfreda's giant took a nasty hit from the giant that Kili was on. The giant was taken by surpirse and it stumbled and ell over backwards. Elfreda knew she had to move quickly. She tied a knot onto on of her arrows and slotted it into her ready aimed bow. She shot at the side of the dwarves giant. It whislted through the air and latched onto the huge beings leg. Elfreda jumped, swinging through the valley like an ape to land on the opposite leg to where the remaineder of the comapny were gripping on like limpets.

The thrid giant was beind the second who did not realise that it was there. A huge rock was in the thrid giants monster like hands. It threw the rock over its head and crashed into the second giant, knocking its head clean off like a skittle.

The huge head hit the cliff face just above the safe dwarves on the mountain side and fell quickly to the floor far below them. However, its body stood their in limbo, its arms flailing out behind it. The leg were the dwarves were traveled past the dwarves on the path. As the body fell, its leg fell into the cliff face the dwarves were smashed against it, it looked like there was no hope for them.

"No!" screamed Thorin. They rushed over to the were the leg had collided with the wall.

Elfreda was falling. Her side had come no where near the cliff. Air rushed around her and she could do very little to save herself. That was when she spotted a small gap in the cliff. Using her rope and arrow once again she shot at the rock and swung into the small cave. She landed on her front, the wind being knocked out of her.

"No Kili," shouted Thorin. The dwarf prince sighed with releif as he saw his friends and nephew safe and sound but rather scared sat on the small path. He helped them up and made sure that they were alright. Bofur looked around with fear

"Where's Bilbo?" he cried. That was when they realised that the hobbit was not there. In fact he was hanging on for dear life off the side of the wall. His feet could not find a gap and his fingers were slipping. Bofur and Ori grapped his hand just before Bilbo slipped. They tried to pull him up but their hands too were slipping. In a drastic moment, Thorin, slung himself off the path and heaved Bilbo up but he too sliped. Dwalin grabbed his friend's hand and pulled him up.

"I thought we had lost our burglar!" gasped Dwalin. Thorin looked at Bilbo with anger in his eyes.

"He's been lost ever since he left home. He should never have come," stated Thorin "he has no place among us." He found a cave and signalled to Dwalin to take a look around. This was were they were going to stay fomr the night.

Elfreda had brushed herself down. She walked through the dark cave, her eyes slowly adjusting to the light. It smelt of damp. Elfreda turned a corner and to her surprise there was light. Flames flickered off the walls. Around her there were shelves upon shelves of all different types of food. This was when Elfreda suddenly realised that her stomach was compalining to her- she had not eaten in days.

She dumped her bag on the floor and walked over to the food. She stopped and thought. This was very unnatural but her hunger took the better of her. Elfreda picked up a bread loaf. It was not fresh nor was it made of any good flour but it was bread and Elfreda knew better than anyone not to be picky about what they ate. She ripped the end of the loaf and stuffed it in her mouth. As she ate the rest, she took food off the shelf and put it in her bag for later.

There was a shuffle from behind her. Elfreda looked around and reached for the torch. Something ran behind her. Elfreda swung the torch around knocking the thing on the head, killing it. The beast was a goblin, its fat, grotesque body lay limp on the floor. That was when around thrity other goblins rushed out from the shadows. She blocked their attacks with a swing of her sword. Elfreda turned on her heels and sliced several goblins in one go. The goblins screeched and growled as more and more of them ran out and attacked. They had Elfreda cornered against one side of the cave. She turned, looking the wall and ran at it. Elfreda kicked the wall with her foot and backflipped against it. She landed on the other side of the goblins and slayed a few more goblins.

However, five goblins jumped onto her back causing her to fall over onto the ground. She was swarmed by masses of goblins. No matter how much she struggled and squirmed, they had her pinned down.

"Let's finished her!" one squealed. Lots of other jeered in agreement but a bigger goblin, quite possibly the general stopped it.

"No, the king will want to see the theif." it commanded. They tied rope around her wrists and pulled her down the cavern. Elfreda knew it was no use to try and resist. Then out of the corner of her eye she spotted two small figures having a brawl along one of the many bridges. It was Bilbo and a goblin. The hobbit toppled and fell off the bridge with the goblin.

"Bilbo!" cried Elfreda but he did not hear her. The general had had enough of her sprawls. He forcefully tied a fabric bag around her head to stop her from talking. They continued on towards the Goblin King.