Price of Battle ➝ The Hobbit ✓

Part Twenty-Six

A/N: Holy Hobbit! This fanfic has reached 3K reads and almost 200 votes! Thank you so much guys! You're all amazing :) And I spend waaaaay too much time on this.

Anyway. Enjoy the chapter!

PART TWENTY-SIX ~

Arien awoke to a deep rumble that seemed to resonate throughout the whole cave. She snapped away from the clutches of sleep and immediately scoured her surroundings.

The cave was illuminated with the soft glow of the moon as it cascaded its silvery shafts through the opening. She basked for a moment in its glimmering light, before becoming aware of more rumbling and sonorous vibrations running through the walls enclosing her and her companion.

She frowned, squinting through the darkness that shrouded the corners of the cavern. Another deep groan, and what sounded like a hefty cracking noise; like straining to snap a piece of wood in half.

The room settled back into silence, and Arien slowly pushed herself up from her bedroll. She gingerly approached the back of the cave, where the rumbled seemed to have resonated from, but before she could take another step, more rasping creaks and vibrations rang through the whole cave, and the walls shook around her. She let out a yelp of surprise and clutched onto the nearest rock as the jagged corners of the cave began to shift and groan unsteadily.

Fili woke with a start, his hand reaching for his sword as he leapt from his blankets. He blinked rapidly before straining to see what was occurring.

"What's happening?" Fili roared over the thundering rumbles.

"I don't know!" Arien cried back, yelping loudly as she was thrown back against the wall.

The answer soon became clear as a large fissure suddenly opened up in the rock; streams of light poured through the crevice, and Arien shielded her eyes from the brilliance of the glow against the gloomy cave. A loud thundering overpowered the sudden silence and what sounded like heavy footfalls approached the bewildered warriors.

Fili's eyes were wide with disbelief, and Arien glanced at her friend uncertainly.

"What on Middle-Earth is going on?" She muttered as the footsteps grew steadily louder. A perplexing chant was also taking place as the heavy boots marched in unison through the opening; irrational words and phrases were emphasized with enigmatic grunts as they recited some otherworldly incantation.

"I really have no-" Fili abruptly stopped mid-sentence as his jaw dropped. Arien followed his gaze and gasped in surprise. Long, menacing shadows were suddenly cast along the cavern walls as flickering torches held by skinny, gnarled, green arms came into view, followed by the creatures themselves.

"Goblins," Arien mumbled, cursing silently under her breath. She sunk back into the shadows and loosened her blade from its scabbard, but the clumsy figure of the human did not escape the keen sight of the cave-dwellers before her.

Rows upon rows of the green beasts poured out of the fissure, some clutching small coruscating torches, others gripping wicked daggers that glinted fiercely in the torch-light. Their slanted eyes glinted triumphantly as their gaze scoured the length of the cave and caught sight of the intruders. They gurgled to each other in communication, putting an end to their peculiar chanting.

Arien knew it'd be no use trying to fight them. There were too many for them to handle on their own. She hoped to Durin this was not the refuge of the Goblin King; there'd be no hope of escaping alive if it was so.

Her heart beat out a steady rhythm as the goblins filed into the cave, eyeing her and Fili warily. Their bony little hands kept flinching to the scabbards encasing deadly blades round some of their waists; it was obvious they wanted to rid the intruders of their caves with a quick slit of the throat, but someone clearly wanted them alive. For now.

She left her blade untouched and stood motionless, hardly daring to breathe, as the goblins came to a halt before them.

"What is it?" A gruff voice cut through the air. More stony voices rang to meet it, and Arien was able to distinguish various words being called in response; 'human and dwarf', 'wretched beasts', 'let's kill 'em now!'.

There was a sudden pause, as the goblins waited for their command.

"Bring 'em to the tunnels."

Dread immediately filled Arien's heart as two of the beasts stepped forward and grabbed her roughly by the shoulders. The forced her to stumble forward, pinching unmercifully at her exposed arms and chuckling with amusment as she growled in frustration.

She staggered through the crack and into a narrow tunnel, where the air became stuffy and musty, and claustrophobia kicked in as her lungs strained for clean air. She coughed and spluttered several times as a hot, rancid smell filled her nostrils, and she heard Fili do the same behind her.

They were shoved further down the tunnels, behind the jeering goblins, and Arien felt herself overcome with foreboding as her captors dug their nails viciously into her thin clothing. Horror bubbled inside her as they neared the refuge of their leader. He would be the one to decide their punishment for trespassing, and Arien figured it'd be nothing less than some horrific, tortuous ritual that'd see to them with a slow, painful death. But she couldn't be certain; maybe the leader would be merciful...

"Boss is busy at the moment. Throw 'em in the dungeons for now."

The goblins complied and they were led through more winding tunnels with various long, dank branches leading off them. The creatures before them were able to navigate through the labyrinth with ease, even without the aid of the torches that had been discarded long before due to constant grumbling and moaning of the brightness.

After what felt like an eternity of blundering blindly down passage after passage, each one identical to the last, they were finally admitted into a wide cavern with low ceilings, held up with groaning rafters. Steel mesh cages lined the back of the hollow, emitting a nauseating stench that made Arien gag. They were thrown brutally into separate prisons and left to the mercy of the darkness.

The last laborious footfall faded into the distance, and a solemn silence reigned for a few minutes, until it was eventually broken by Fili's dry voice.

"So, how're we going to get out of this one?"

~