Calm The Fire

16

When nighttime slowly crept in and the last remnants of the bright sun was dwindling behind the horizon, the group set up camp. No sooner had everyone dismounted and sorted themselves out and where they were to sleep, the sky had darkened considerably. A heavy blanket of black had taken over and on this blanket was small white stars which shone out lightly. The moon had come out by this point and had illuminated the surrounding woodland in a silver grey glow.

Bilbo had woke up to the sounds of Bombur snoring. Small insects got sucked into his mouth, only to be blown out again. Pushing himself up, he slowly stood. Gandalf sat leaning against a tree, smoking his pipe with a thoughtful look on his face. Thorin was leaning against the cliff face wall, looking out at the woodland, Fíli and Kíli were near the fire staring at it, and the others were either up to something, or sleeping.

Turning from his pony, Mertle, Bilbo looked around wide eyed when there was a heart piercing screech from somewhere in the darkened distance. "What was that?" He asked quietly while pointing to the edge of the cliff.

Kíli looked around, "Orcs."

"Orcs?" Bilbo quickly walked over to where he was seated. As he neared, Thorin sat up in his leaning position and looked around, suddenly alert.

"Throat cutters," Fíli continued on from his brother, beside him, Náriel rolled her eyes up at him and shook her head. She didn't wholly agree with the slight teasing which the dwarves had already sent in the hobbit's direction. "There's most likely dozens of them out there." Bilbo looked from the night sky back to Fíli as he spoke. He opened and shut his mouth, clearly not taken too kindly to Fíli's words.

"They strike in the early hours when everyone is asleep." Kíli said while crossing his arms over his knees. "Quick and quiet, no screams," he said casually, by now both Thorin and Gandalf looked over. The first of which narrowed his eyes, and the second just looked at them blankly. "Just lots of blood." Kíli finished in a whisper, his words caused Bilbo to look like he was about to faint, again. Moments of silence passed and Kíli quietly laughed, his brother joined in too only to receive a kick from Náriel.

She stood and walked over to the slightly worried looking hobbit. Putting a hand on his shoulder she smiled. "Ignore them." She whispered, attempting to be reassuring. Bilbo gulped and looked wide eyed, but at least it didn't look like he was going to faint, or sit shaking in fear of going to sleep for the night.

"That isn't funny," Thorin said while looking to his nephews. They quickly went silent from hearing his voice. "You think a night raid by orcs is a joke?" He stood and walked steadily past Bilbo and Náriel.

Kíli looked up and tried to defend himself. "I didn't mean anything by it." He looked down at the fire again.

"No, you didn't." Thorin said lowly while fully walking away and approaching where Gandalf sat. "You know nothing of the world."

Bilbo let out a sigh and nodded slowly, Náriel patted him on the shoulder one last time before crossing her arms. "Don't mind him, laddie, Thorin has more cause than most to hate orcs." Balin said while approaching where the four of them were and took to leaning an arm against the cliff wall. "When the dragon took the Lonely Mountain. King Thrór tried to reclaim the dwarf kingdom of Moria." Balin explained. "But the enemy had got there first. Moria had been taken over, by legions of orcs. Lead by the most vile of all; Azog the Defiler." Balin paused to sigh quietly. "A Gundabad Orc that had sworn to wipe out the line of Durin." Balin looked up at them all.

Bilbo slowly walked over and sat down on a boulder nearby, Náriel had sat down to crouch near it. Fíli and Kíli remained near the fire looking up at the elder dwarf waiting for him to continue.