For the Sake of Kings (Thorin x OC x Aragorn romance)

10. Goblin Town

Thorin's POV

Damn her.. where did she go...? I was thinking to myself as we reached a cave in the midst of a mountain pass, after nearly losing half our company to the battle between stone giants.

I noticed the lightest impression of footprints in the sand that lined the cave floor and sent Dwalin to check the back of the cave for signs of life. It was empty.

"Right then! Let's get a fire started." Gloin said, dropping a pile of wood on the ground and rubbing his hands together.

"No. No fires, not in this place. Get some sleep. We start at first light." I said, before going the far end of the open space in the cave and sitting down, settling down for some rest.

Balin urged me to wait for Gandalf as we'd initially decided, but we didn't have time to wait for the wizard.
"Plans change. Bofur, take the first watch."

A couple hours later, I heard voices, and listened as Bilbo spoke to Bofur about our wandering ways and us not having a home. I frowned, but lifted my head as I heard Bofur ask "What's that?"
The hobbit's sword was glowing. I slowly pushed up on an arm and looked around, until my eyes were drawn to a line forming in the sand.

"Wake up! Wake up!" I called out as I hurried to my feet. The others awoke to my shouts but didn't react fast enough before the floor under us dropped. Everything happened in a blur then; we fell down a long ways into the mountain depths, before landing in some kind of basket. Then a horde of goblins appeared and rounded us all up, forcing us along bridges and narrow pathways. Until we finally reached a platform, where a goblin, larger and more grotesque than the others, was singing a horrid, off key song.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Materia's POV

I was sitting under a tree at the edge of a cliff, winding down from a horrid situation with a bunch of goblins. There were wounds torn through my tunic and skin from a whip, and a deep gash on my waist from the initial fall prior to the encounter with the foul creatures.

After tearing strips from the bottom of my cloak into bandages and wrapping the injury on my side to reduce the worst of the bleeding, the blood loss made me doze against the tree, fading between consciousness and sleep.
The run-in played through my hazy brain.

I'd just begun to rest my eyes in my place in the cave, when the small section of the floor under me dropped, casting me down over multiple stone slides and ledges, until I hit a ragged basket made of wood and bones. I slowly sat up, wincing at a gash in my side from a sharp stone I'd hit above.

Suddenly, a dozen goblins approached, running at me and grabbing me before I could think of a way to react. They ripped my sword and bag from my side and threw them over the side of the pathways they dragged me over. Before they could get me to wherever they were taking me, I tried to struggle away, as the few not holding me tried to whip me into submission with leather ropes that ended in small, sharp bones. I managed to break their grip only to trip over one I'd shoved to the ground. The path disappeared below me and I fell into the depths below their bridges.

At the bottom, after hitting more stone edges that surely left bruises everywhere, I landed on something soft yet boney. Forcing myself to sit up, I found myself on a pile of massive mushrooms and an unnatural looking creature that was skin and bones. I'd knocked him out when I landed but he was already twitching as though coming to.

Gritting my teeth, I pushed to my feet, glancing around quickly. My sword lay a few feet away but my bag had disappeared. I grabbed the blade and secured it in its scabbard as I sprinted quickly away from the creature, who let out a groan behind me.

After an hour or so of rushing through the dark tunnels, I finally found a passage that ended in light. I sagged to the ground when I stepped into the sun, breathing raggedly from the pain and running, and letting out a small laugh of relief, thankful to not be underground. The laughter died as I realized Thorin and his company had no chance of catching up to me now, or of finding me. The path through the mountain pass wouldn't bring them here.

I faded in and out of the memories, my time in Erabor mixing in, as well as the time in Rivendell. I laughed in my haze as the dwarves in the fountain played out, the image of Thorin slowing as the rest of the memory faded to black around him. His face turned towards me, smiling as he said my name. His tone was panicked, very unlike his expression. He shouted my name again, his blue eyes blazing at me, before everything went black.