She dreams of Golden Hope

Taper in a Tempest

„Oh plunge me deep in love - put out my senses, leave me deaf and blind, swept by the tempest of your love, a taper in a rushing wind." Sara Teasdale- I am not yours

They now stood before the goblin king. Laurel reflected on how they had gotten here and how they found themselves in this precarious situation. A situation which she knew, without a doubt, was infinitely more serious than the trolls they had faced during the first leg of their journey.

They had fallen through the ground of the cavern after the sand, which covered it, had seeped away and had revealed trap doors, which had tilted beneath their feet, causing the assembled company of Thorin Oakenshield to fall down a plunging abyss. Ever deeper into the mountain they went, until she had landed beside Bilbo, on top of the pile of dwarfs. They had found themselves on a wooden platform surrounded by great, sharp spears, almost making the circular area appear like a prison. She had quickly stood and looked at her surroundings and had seen that they were indeed caught in the depth of the Lonely Mountains, with plunging rocky cliffs surrounding her from every angle. The platform made from old wood groaned beneath the weight of the assembled dwarfs and she had quickly scrambled off the pile in fear that the wood would not hold beneath them.

Yet she had not had enough time to ponder too greatly on their location, because almost immediately after the dwarfs had recovered their bearings, her pointy ears had twitched, as far off into the distance she had heard the sound of an approaching congregation, as they ran toward them, snarling and shrilling with malevolent fiendish delight. She had looked into the direction the sound had come from and was met by a sight that was so gruesome it had caused a shiver to run up her spine and dread to pack her tightly. An assemblage of goblins had come charging at them- at their prisoners, at their prey, running gracelessly, tripping over their own feet as they were consumed by their enthusiasm concerning the horrendous deeds they would inflict upon their prey.

The goblins had charged at them at a speed that had made it impossible for the company to draw their weapons and to wield any type of protection. They had charged at them hissing and gnarling in vicious delight, with their foul yellow teeth barred in a triumphant ugly sneer and their warty faces contorted with calamity. They had come charging at the company in a great number, which had soon overpowered the few of them that were present. The goblins had jumped on them and tore them away from each other, as they had shrieked high-pitchedly into her sensitive ears and she had almost become dizzy at the dismal sound these horrid creatures produced. Some dwarves had tried to fend off the enemy, delivering blows to them that had been so forceful that some of the goblins had gone toppling down the edge. Yet more and more goblins had arrived to replace the fallen ones and soon the company of Thorin Oakenshield had been engulfed by a sea of warty, lumpy skin and in the smell of foul decay.

She had tried to free herself of the goblin's clutches, who had her gripped by the waist and was carrying her like a sack of flours. She kicked out her legs and struggled, but the goblin's hold on her was like the most unyielding steel and soon she had tired herself and was left to hang on the goblin's arms with defeat as she looked upon the interior of the mountain, while the goblins took their prisoners deeper and deeper into the tight clutches of their realm. She had seen the unrefined and unsteady constructions of the goblins, as the repugnant creatures hung off them and watched the procision of their kin who carried the dwarves and her, catcalling and shrieking and she felt queasy, as she pondered what fate would befall her, them, in the hands of these beasts. She could not help but recall the description she had once more about goblins in her and Bilbo's book. She had felt afterwards felt so scared at the image the words about the goblins had conjured that she had been unable to sleep for half the night and had later crawled into Bilbo's bed and had buried herself underneath his covers.