Erebor's Guardian

Chapter 1

"This place is amazing!" Kylie exclaimed. She had her medium length brown hair braided to the side as her wide chocolate brown eyes took in every view. The cosplay of her Assassin's Creed took me nearly a month to sew out of realistic material. She bought over the knee brown boots to cover her black pants and under her white hooded coat was a sheer white shirt allowing the shadow of her figure to show. I had tied a red cloth around her stomach for protection from her many leather belts that were to house her 'weapons' of throwing knives, short swords and poison. Of course, they were all fake and made of dull lightweight steel. I loved her cosplay even though I had never played the actual game itself.

"Welcome to Comic-con!" Jenna clapped her hand on Kylie's shoulder. Jenna was dressed as a member of the Thieves Guild from Skyrim. She had me convert her favorite brown boots to match her cosplay for some added comfort. I added a pair of black and brown engraved bracers to her forearms and shins. I was able to locate some cotton that mimicked leather extremely well as pants and a bodice. The leather bodice was covered by switch back belts holding her 'weapons'. Jenna wore her light brown hair fully down under her hood. "And of course, we have the best cosplay." She winked at me.

"Thank you." I grinned proudly. I saved the best for myself in my opinion. I was a hunter from Monster Hunter World that I created from playing and hunting the Odogaron monster, a large scaly red dog nearly the size of an elephant. The pants were black with scales up the legs with red crisscrossing leather and red scaled boots that kind of looked like the armor on a samurai's legs that tied with tan rope over my pants. The leather belt had many compartments to hold my things while black fabric flowed down the back of the belt with flames at the weathered ends. My under armor consisted of black breathable spandex that I weathered to look like animal hide. Over my chest was large red scales making a bikini style breast plate that was strapped on with red leather straps crossing over my back and shoulders. Down my arms I kept it simple with black sleeves and red scaly bracers. I wore the mask covering my mouth and nose that was a scaled down the muzzle of the Odogaron monster with bright red scales that emphasized my deep green eyes. At my side I carried a long elvish sword from my previous trip since making the insect glaive my character used took too long to make and was not ready in time. My natural long platinum blond hair was pulled back into a high ponytail hairstyle. I added my own personal touches with long elf ears and a chainmail circlet across my head and at the center three lines of chains on either side drooped down and flanked three crystals. There were two emerald crystals and one white on the center.

"Excuse me, can I have a picture?" Another nameless fan asked, and I nodded with happiness. The one problem about my crafting skills was that it was so good we were stuck in a huge crowd. The vendor's hall was packed with shoppers, fans, vendors and security. I oddly felt right at home.

Then a tall grey pointy hat appeared over the crowd with a brown wooden staff.

"Look!" I slapped Kylie's arm to get her attention. "Someone is dressed as Gandalf!"

"Oh! Oh! Where?" Jenna said, on her tiptoes trying to scan the room.

"There!" I pointed out his location as he continued through the crowd. "Come on, let's get a picture." I pulled them through the overheated crowds. "Excuse us! Coming through!" It was like an obstacle course of sweaty nerds in cheap fabric. "Hey Gandalf!" I called, seeing the hat continue to move. "Wait!" I was nearly out of breath.

"Where is he going?" Kylie complained trying to keep up.

"Come on!" Jenna took the lead with fire in her eyes. "He owes me a journey." She giggled.

We left the crowd into an empty hallway. We finally got a clear sight of Gandalf as he rounded a corner and we bolted after him. When we took to the corner there was nothing there but a dead end.

"Where did he go?" Jenna's inner fire extinguished quickly as she stared at a blank wall.

"Come on." I sighed in defeat. "There will be others."

"But he was the most realistic one!" Jenna looked like she was going to cry.

Suddenly a gust of wind blew past us as the exit doors were kicked open and two shooters in masks took aim at all three of us. My body went rigid in panic and fear as my best friends hid behind me. I heard the shots fire and the muzzle flash of the rifles when a hole opened up in the ground below our feet and swallowed us in time before any bullets hit us.