Calm The Fire

20

Bilbo slowly felt consciousness returning to him. He had had the luck of being left behind, when the company were stolen away, the goblins had skimmed past him and seemingly ignored him completely. Bilbo thought this was some sort of luck, odd luck but luck nonetheless. He had had it in mind to follow the trail of goblins and find where his companions had been taken. Only, that hadn't ended too well. A goblin who had straggled behind had jumped down from a bridge above him and the two had commenced fighting.

This fight didn't last long before both sailed over the edge of the cliff and fell into the darkness below. From then on, it was a blank. Bilbo didn't know how long he had been out for. But he knew he still wasn't alone. He could hear the struggled breaths of the goblin, it was still alive. Bilbo lifted his head up slowly, with squinted eyes he looked past the goblin. There was something else down here. He could hear the rasping breaths of the oncoming figure.

From around the corner, a stooped figure with large glowing eyes appeared. With surprising speed, it crawled forwards and took to examining the unconscious figure laying in front of it. "Yesss, yes! Yes, Gollum, yes! Gollum! Gollum!" It said quietly to itself all the while moving around the goblin. With unknown strength coming from something so gnarled, Gollum picked up the goblin by its ankles and started to drag it away. Only, the goblin wasn't as unconscious as it had led to believe.

With a sudden burst, it tried sitting up and swiping at the being which was holding onto it. This was easily fought against, the goblin suddenly found itself being hit over the head with a nearby rock. Bilbo watched with wide eyes in his hiding place, so far he hadn't been noticed, but he noticed as a golden ring dropped from to the floor. Looking at it, and then back up, he perked up and left his hiding place when the creature had disappeared.

Jumping up, he managed to find his glowing sword and pick it up. Using the light of the sword he managed to find his way around. There was very little light being sent down from the surroundings above. Tilting his head to the side, he reached down and picked up the golden ring which had previously fallen to the floor. Turning it curiously over in his hand, he put it in his pocket.

"Ah! Too many boneses, precious! Not enough flesh. Shut up! Cut its skin off! Start with its head!" Came a hauntingly spoken voice from somewhere else down here. Bilbo started to move on, he used the light of his sword to see the sudden outcropping stones, he avoided them and started to duck behind one to hide just as singing echoed throughout the cave. "The cold hard lands, they bites our hands, they gnaws our feet, for rocks and stones are like old bones all bare of meat, cold as death, without no breath it's good to eat."

Bilbo peered around a stone to see the goblin give one more attempt at fighting back before getting hit over the head with a stone again. A look got cast his way, just as he ducked back behind his hiding place. He looked down as the sword in his hands slowly flickered before the blue glow vanished completely. Looking back around to watch, Bilbo's eyes looked around confused. Gollum had moved, vanished it seems. He let out a relieved sigh, the sigh got cut off though when familiar rasping breaths were heard above him.

Before he could react, he suddenly had Gollum jump down and land in front of him. "Bless us and splash us, precious. That's a meaty mouthful." Gollum went to take a step forwards, only to have Bilbo's sword suddenly flicked up so it was against his throat. "Gollum! Gollum!" He coughed.

Bilbo slowly stood while keeping the sword pointing forwards. "Stay back. I'm warning you, don't come any closer." He said lowly while trying to edge his way around Gollum, who'd pressed himself up against a nearby rock.

"It's got an elfish blade, but it's not an elfes. Not an elfes, no. What is it, precious? What is it?" Gollum questioned curiously while crawling slowly away. He ended up crouching near another rock and looking at Bilbo with narrowed eyes. He did seem truly confused by Bilbo's existence. His large blue eyes looked him up and down with a scrutinising look, assessing him.