Adventure Is Calling

8. Peculiar Caterpillars and Wayward Wizards

Joanna squirmed yet again inside the stinky sack one of the trolls had tied her up in. She was joined by half the company while the rest were currently roasting on a spit over the fire. So... she could have been worse off she guessed. She had landed near Thorin, but she couldn't meet his eyes, afraid of what she'd see there. As it was partially her fault they were in all this mess. If only she and Bilbo had been able to free the ponies without alerting the trolls. But she wasn't going to apologize about loving her cousin and not wanting to see him killed-for she knew Thorin had pondered letting them kill him, if only for a second. And to be perfectly honest, she was pretty miffed with him about that as well.

Joanna tried wiggling around again to find a comfier position, as something strangely lumpy kept digging into her hip, and she ignored the irritated dwarves below her whose heads she kept kicking. When she rolled on her stomach, bumping up against Thorin, she finally realized what it was that was bothering her and she finally met Thorin's gaze with a wide one of her own. The trolls had made the dwarves strip down to their undergarments, much to Joanna's embarrassment, but the trolls at least had some decency, for they didn't make Joanna disrobe-they merely tied her hands, tossed her into a sack and were done with it. They probably didn't expect a woman to pose any threat to them. And Joanna would agree she was quite unthreatening in most cases, but she had forgotten her aunt's dagger that she had unwittingly strapped to her hip right before she took off on the journey.

"Thorin!" she hissed, wiggling closer to him, aware she probably looked like a very strange, peculiar caterpillar as she pushed herself up to his ear. She didn't even care that she had practically draped herself across his chest, she refused to lie on a tree root.

"What?!" he muttered, his eyes wide as he shifted beneath her.

"I have a dagger on me!" Joanna whispered, trying to fumble around in her sack to find it.

"What?" but this time his voice held a bit of hopefulness.

"I don't know if I can cut myself loose, but I might be able to pierce the sack and have a go at yours!" Joanna nodded, having already decided. She rolled back over, probably whacking Thorin in the face with her hair if his resulting puh! was anything to go off of, and hissed to get Bilbo's attention. "Stall them!"

Bilbo blinked at her, before he managed to jump to his feet in the sack and called out to the trolls. Joanna honestly didn't hear anything else Bilbo said, for adrenaline was coursing through her body as she whirled back around to face Thorin, slapping him in the face with her hair yet again.

"Ok... we need to switch places."

Thorin looked at her exasperated, but he nevertheless rolled over until Joanna could wiggle into the spot he had just vacated and then he rolled back over so he laid across her legs-blocking her from view. Joanna worked the dagger free of its sheath and slowly started the cut through the thick, coarse sack material. The dwarves started yelling-at what, Joanna had no idea, but she had an inkling it involved Bilbo-and it provided nice coverage for the sharp tearing sound.

"Up!" Joanna hissed at Thorin. "Are your hands behind your back?"

Thorin nodded slightly before scooting back until he was basically in Joanna's lap and if it had been any other moment, she would have been blushing furiously. Joanna carefully started to cut through Thorin's sack and when her fingers brushed against the bare skin of his muscular forearm, she trailed her hands down until his large hands clasped hers. With a shaky breath, she just imagined she was cutting pie and not a rope dangerously close to someone's wrists, and slowly sawed against the binding. Thorin was tense against her, but she ignored everything other than her task and had to stifle a shout of triumph when the rope gave way to her knife. Thorin quickly and quietly started to untie the knot of rope around his neck that tied the sack together.