Sally and the Line of Durin

Chapter 4

Sally was thrown into a cell with Bifur. 'Oh great,' she thought, 'not even one I can speak with.'

She could hear Thorin shouting and the comforting sounds of Balin's words. She sat on the floor beside Bifur and smiled at him. He returned her smile with a wolfish grin.

In Kuhzdul, he said, "Thorin will get us out of here. I have no doubt about it."

"You didn't happen to see what happened to Bilbo, did you?" Apparently, she could communicate with him.

"Not since the spiders..." he put an awkward arm around the woman. "Don't worry lass, he will turn up." The dwarfs started to whisper loudly from cell to cell. "Those fools are going to get us into trouble!"

"Count on a dwarf to do so!" Sally laughed.

Bifur looked closely at Sally, "You know, lass, now that I look closer at you, you are most definitely a dwarf." Sally raised her eyebrows questioningly. "You are more delicate than most dwarrowdams and you don't have a beard, but your face and your body are well proportioned."

Sally got to her knees and turned to Bifur, "Please don't tell anyone." Bifur looked at her askance. "Not that there is anything wrong with being a dwarf...I find you all rather comforting. However, I am still not used to the idea that I am a dwarf not a hobbit, so I still need some time." She slumped back into a sitting position.

"Of course, lass...of course, whatever you need." Bifur put his arms around Sally again and she leaned into him before falling asleep.

***

She awoke to the sound of footsteps nearby. Shuffling footsteps, definitely not those of an elf! She nudged Bifur awake and put a finger to her mouth. "Shhhh."

After a moment Bilbo appeared at her cell door. "Bilbo!" She whispered as he put his finger to his lips.

"Come! Follow me."

Some of the dwarfs tried to head up into the tree tops, but Bilbo ushered them all down to the cellars. After some grumbling and complaining Thorin ordered everyone to do as Bilbo said. On her way to a barrel Thorin took a gentle hold of her arm, and gave a questioning eyebrow rise. Sally patted his arm and smiled at him before securing a barrel near the front of the row.

Suddenly she was plummeting down a chute, landing in the river with a splash. Her barrel righted itself and she took a huge gasp of air. The barrels were travelling at high speed down some very dangerous rapids! Sally shrunk down into her barrel, afraid of all that she saw. The greenery flashing by, the spray of water, the looks of terror on the faces of the dwarfs!

The call went out to the other elves that they had escaped. Sally popped her head out in time to see an elf spring to a lever and lower it, closing the gates ahead. The barrels bumped into each other as they came to a sudden halt. Sally looked on in defeat as Thorin shouted out his anger and frustration.

Sally called to Bilbo, just as his eyes grew wide in wonder. In the same instance one of the elf guards fell forward into the river, an Orc arrow sticking straight out his back. 'Great Orcs!' None of the dwarfs had any weapons! The last thing she saw before taking cover in her barrel was Kili jumping out of his barrel and making his way to the lever.

Meanwhile Orcs were converging on them. They leapt over her barrel, trying to get at the others. Bilbo started slashing at them with Sting, suddenly an orc sword landed in her barrel.

She crouched in her barrel looking at the sword. With a shout of "Khazâd!" she grabbed the sword and sprung up from her hiding place. With a mighty swing she knocked the head off of an orc. She wielded it not like a sword, but more like the staff she was accustomed to using. The shortness of it made it awkward in her hands, but she did not let that stop her.