Of The Earth And Starlight (A The Hobbit/Kili fanfiction)

The Ponies Are Missing

Emeril

Sunlight streamed down in bright golden bursts through the dense canopy of leaves that blanketed the forest, dappelling the light, leaving speckles of illumination through the woods. I woke to the sound of a morning bird, chirping from a few branches above me, singing its morning chorus with an elegant beauty in its voice. A grin spread across my face as I watched the small, mottled brown creature tweet, its head flicking around from side to side, keeping a watching eye at all times over the forest.

Then another sound reached my ears. I turned my head towards the source of it and saw that the camp that I had sat watch over had come alive in the fresh morning, the dwarves bustling around, packing up their belongings that had been scattered around the fire. The beautiful dwarf was sat folding up his thick blankets, rolling them up so that they might fit onto his back.

One dwarf, a stocky built being, strode over from his position where he had previously been consulting the wizard, and stood by the extinguished fire in the centre of the company.

"Hurry up," he bellowed at them, his voice deep and gruff, his posture stating some kind of authority over the rest of the group. Silence fell as the group all turned to listen to him, their tasks momentarily postponed. "We need to leave, so pack up your belongings quickly. Bofur, are the ponies ready?"

I expected for one of the group to step forward and answer this leader, however none did. The other dwarves glanced about them, as if in search for their fellow companion who was obviously not with them.

"Where is Bofur?" The leader boomed in annoyance.

"Thorin, he went out to ready the ponies a while back but has not returned." The white haired dwarf from last night answered. Thorin... I had heard of that name before. The legendary Thorin Oakenshield, was known to many people of Middle-Earth. Now that I gazed upon him, he did appear to be less powerful than the legends might have suggested, sure he was intimidating, a clear and defined leader, but not neccersarily the hero of legends. I might have guessed that he would be among this rabble, if these were indeed the dwarves of Erebor then it seemed fitting that Thorin should be their leader.

"Which way did he go?" Thorin asked the white haired one, who in turn pointed to the left side of the clearing. The dwarves were about to pursue their missing comrad when a rustling the direction that the white haired one had pointed stopped them and a moment later a small dwarf with a strange hat placed on his head waddled nervously through the shrub into the clearing before Thorin.

"Thorin, I am sorry, but the ponies..." he paused, looking helplessly defeated. "They are gone. They ran away during the night."

Silence once again fell over the camp, all eyes were on Thorin, wondering what he would do. Bofur, as I presumed the hatted dwarf was called, seemed to tremble slightly with fear. Thorin's eyes fell to the ground as he seemed to consider his options and then he glanced back up and faced poor Bofur.

"Well then find them!" he ordered fiercely. "All of you, help look for them. If we don't get our ponies back, our journey could be in danger. Hurry."

The camp sprang into life instantly as the dozen or so dwarves who were previously sat around amusing themselves, jumped up and pelted into the forest, in a desperate search for their missing ponies. The only ones to stay behind were Thorin and the wizard who had watched the events unfold without expression. Thorin joined him once more and then two delved into a deep, whispered discussion that even with my heightened hearing, I could not make out.

I was startled back into reality however, when a frantic dwarf suddenly ran by the tree in which I was sat in. I rolled my eyes as I knew that the ponies were not on this side of the clearing, and so his attempts to search this area were useless. Once he had gone and I was sure no one else was around I quickly swung down from my branch and crept along the perimeter of the clearing to the left, skirting round to the point where I knew they must have kept the ponies. Sure enough the only sign that there had once been beasts here were the chewed ends of the long grass that grew around the trees.