Dance Of Darkness And Light

Chapter 10: Misty Riddles, Shadowy Business

A/N: A shoutout to pandoradreamsamazing and yorushihe - thank you so much guys, I'm beyond thrilled you like it so much. Here's a new one for you

Gigantic shoutout and hug to my beta's NixNox and especially Tyren, for his invaluable help with this chapter.

Without further ado, onto the new one!

Chapter 10: Misty Riddles, Shadowy Business

Linshara and Gandalf split quite quickly after starting their descent. Gandalf had sped off on the upper levels, as he sensed the dwarves would need him. She felt an urge to go with him initially, but when she remembered Bilbo, alone down on the underground lake, she quickly refocused her priorities.

Owing to her expertise in wielding the Force her climb down was relatively easy as she could make long jumps relatively quietly, without much risk to herself. There were a few instances when she'd almost ran into a patrol of those creatures, but she managed to hide in time. There were so many of them everywhere it was difficult to pinpoint when they were closing towards her. That and her focus was mostly on getting to Bilbo as fast as possible and not getting injured in the process.

As she finally reached what looked to be solid ground, she quietly unsheathed her sword and got into a crouch, letting her senses guide her to Bilbo. Green eyes opened slowly, he was ahead of her, and he was quite frightened. Something else was with him. A sort of dark and malevolent presence, though it seemed to be split. Frowning in confusion, she inched closer, slightly bent in a half crouch. As she approached, she hid behind one of the larger rocks nearby and peeked over it.

There was indeed an underground lake of sorts in front of her, a weird askew triangular rock in the middle of it. She saw Bibo hold his sword in front of him towards a gangly, pale creature with oversized eyes and crooked teeth, naked and wrapped only in a loin cloth. Listening in more closely she could hear that they were playing a game of riddles?

Linshara frowned, Bilbo had part of the dark presence and the creature had another? How was that possible? Bilbo was one of the most light oriented people she'd ever met. Surely it wasn't him?!

She quietly sheathed the sword again, so as to not give herself away with the blade reflecting the overhead light. Inching forward slowly, she listened to the conversation.

Bilbo was looking out to the lake, "what...have...I got in my pocket?" He murmured.

The creature above him scowled and started moaning, "is not fair! Is not fair! That's wude!" It threw something on the ground and Bilbo looked surprised.

The creature crossed its hand on its chest and scowled again, "ask us another one!?"

Thannis frowned. ~What the hell is going on here? Why doesn't he run?~

Bilbo held up his sword again, "no no, you said ask me a question. Well that IS my question, what have I got in my pocket?"

It jumped down from its ledge, "you must give us three!"