There and Back Again: A Girl's Tale

Chapter 13 Goblin Town

Chapter 13 Goblin Town

Elwen looked desperately across the cave. The ground beneath her began to shift, sand sifting and falling through cracks forming in the floor. She was sure she heard some kind of machine kick on and gears turning somewhere beneath the surface. Thorin cried for everyone to wake up, but it was too late.

Their eyes met for only a moment, but the moment held so much. She wanted to scream how sorry she was, how much she wished they'd spoken more and less angrily. But there wasn't time.

"Thorin," was all she managed to say before the floors fell open like a giant trap door and they all began plummeting down deep into the mountain.

Elwen wasn't sure how far they fell, but the impact was jarring and painful. They were shot out of some sort of chute into a tunnel sloping down, down, down into the unknown. The tunnel was crudely dug with jagged rocks littering the floor, cutting into her flesh and bloodying her. She was screaming, of course, because who wouldn't scream if they were falling down some crazy tunnel in the middle of a mountain? It was like being on a roller coaster without the safety features.

The company slammed onto a wooden deck in a great heap and hmphs . Elwen landed on top of the pile, her body bouncing off Bombur as if he were a trampoline.

Elwen looked around quickly, her eyes darting over her friends and then to her surroundings. It seemed that everyone was in one piece, though they were all groaning from various aches and pains. It was a miracle none of them had been impaled on their own weapon.

They had landed in some sort of half built wooden cage. They were also lucky no one landed on the pointed boards that were jutting upward like claws. No one had time to assess if there was any damage to their persons, because a few seconds after they landed, a noise that sounded like an avalanche assaulted their ears.

"Look out!" shouted Dori. Elwen looked and saw a hoard of stooped, deformed creatures stampeding their way down the stone ledge that led to their cage.

They were horrifying little monsters. They had large, pointed bat-like ears, sallow paper colored skin with all manner of boils and bumps and disfigurements. They differed from the orcs she had seen, but their terribleness was quite evenly matched.

The monsters rushed them, opening the tiny slits on their faces and screaming through broken and cracked, jagged teeth. There was a great struggle, everyone yelling at the creatures to unhand them and get back. Dwalin smashed many in the face with his great fists, sending them flying off the ledge and into the abyss below. Elwen struggled when a claw-like hand gripped the front of her tunic, but it did no good. The creatures swarmed them like bees, and no matter how hard they fought, it wasn't long until their enemies' sheer numbers overwhelmed them.

The company found themselves being pushed and dragged down a pathway. Elwen looked around and saw all of her friends save one. Where is Bilbo? Her throat closed. Had he been the unlucky one of the party to miss the cage and fall into the darkness below?

Her eyes found Thorin, Fili, and Kili. Their faces were screwed up with anger and panic as they fought and struggled. She took a leaf from Dwalin's book and started punching the creepy suckers in the face, pushing them out of the way and elbowing a path to Thorin's side. She backhanded one so hard that she was pretty sure her tough leather bracers cracked its jaw, though they were so ugly, how could you tell?

"What are these things!?" Elwen shouted over the snarling and growling.

"Goblins!" Thorin replied. He grabbed her hand tightly as one of the said goblins shoved her hard in the back. "Don't leave my side!"