for all the gold || hobbit {completed}

chapter eleven - guests of mirkwood

"Search them," a voice rang out through the clearing in the Common Tongue. Its owner, a pale-haired elf with a clear authoritative air about him, cut through the line of elves. He snapped his fingers and a few of his kin lowered their bows; they crossed the clearing and began to search us.

Shaky still, I could not accept that my hallucination was over and that I was fully conscious again. As a pair of hands grabbed my shoulders and spun me roughly around, I swung out, only for my fist to be caught by a red-headed elf. He smirked at my feeble attempt and said something in Elvish to the amusement of the other elves.

"You can't have that," I spat, my throat still hoarse from screaming, as he grabbed the hilt of my blade and unsheathed the sword. Another hand grabbed the shield at my back. "Get off of me!" I jumped back, but another elf appeared and pulled the shield up over my head.

"Give that back," I exclaimed. "They're mine!" But the elf didn't seem to care or to understand. He merely looked both things over, shrugged, and threw them onto the growing pile of weapons.

Not too far away, Fili was being cleared of his own weapons. As if the twin swords and axes hadn't been enough, the elf guard was frisking him further for various little daggers. He caught my eye and something crossed his face- concern perhaps? It made a nice change from his hostility of the last few days, but still something about it unsettled me.

How bad had I been then when I was dreaming? Bad enough to sleep through a large colony of giant spiders apparently and then through the arrival of a small army of elves. And yet still I couldn't shake off the after-effects. The shaking hands. The clammy palms. The queasy stomach. The sense that I was still very much in the dream and-

"You alright, lass?" Balin whispered. The elves had finished searching us and were beginning to herd us to the edge of the clearing.

"Fine," I whispered back, not that I felt it. The forest seemed to be swimming and shadowy figures seemed to clamber at the edge of my vision.

Close to me, the pale-haired elf was looking through Gloin's possessions.

"Give it back! That's private!" Gloin exclaimed.

"Who is this?" The elf said, staring at some picture or another with disdain. "Your brother?"

"That is my wife!"

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

"That's my wee lad, Gimli!"

To my left I spotted the elf who had searched me before. He came over, took my wrists and looped a length of rope around them.

"What's the point in all of this?" I said. "The weapons- yes. But restraints? Where the hell are we even going to go? You can at least give me back my shield." He only smirked, tightened the rope and walked away, leaving me tied up to all the others.

The pale-haired elf then decided to examine Oakenshield's blade.

"Where did you get this?" he said, angrily.

"It was given to me," Oakenshield replied, only for the blade to be held to his throat.

"Not just a thief, but a liar as well," the elf sneered. He shouted something out in Elvish and then hands were at our backs and we were being forced from the clearing, once more under the control of an armed and hostile guard.

"Stop shoving," I growled to the elf at my back, who only smirked and muttered something that in the Common Tongue would have sounded all too much like 'screamer'. That quickly shut me up. I just about managed to duck out of his grip and hurry forward all the while dragging the dwarves behind along with me.