The White Rider (Thorin Oakenshield)

Chapter Nine: Laketown and Story Time

"Aren't you the White Rider?"

Adelaide froze. Stupid, stupid, stupid!

Bard looked expectantly at the white-cloaked figure in front of him, waiting for a response.

Adelaide swallowed. "Yes," she said, disguising her voice. Bard quirked an eyebrow and led the company to his house.

"Da!" A boy called, running up to the group. "The house! It's being watched!"

And that, Sigrid, is why there are dwarves climbing out of your toilet. And a hobbit. And a person in a white cloak.

"Who are you?" Little Tilda asked, looking up at Adelaide.

Adelaide looked over at Thorin. She sighed. She's getting tired of hiding behind her cloak. She took it off, and draped it over the armchair in the corner. "I'm Adelaide, sweetheart."

Bard was gaping at her.

Thorin noticed this, and wrapped an arm around her waist, drawing her closer to him. He kissed her cheek.

"The White Rider is a woman?" Bard asked.

Gee, isn't this familiar?

Ori looked at her. "Are you going to explain to us how you know Azog?"

Everyone looked at her expectantly.

She sighed and sat down in the armchair. "You might want to sit down for this. It's a long story..."

*Flashback*

Adelaide, only twelve at the time, woke up to the sounds of screams coming from outside her window.

She threw her quilt off of her legs, and ran to the window, peeking out behind the curtains. What she saw will forever be imprinted on her mind. Orcs, dozens of them, were raiding her village.

"Addie! Addie, dear!" Her mother cried, running into her room. "You must hide!"

Adelaide backed away from the window, looking up at her mother with wide, fearful blue eyes. "What about you, Momma?"

Her mother led Adelaide to the cellar. "I'll be fine, Addie. But, no matter what you may hear, you mustn't leave the cellar. Do you understand me?"

"I understand, Momma!" She said, climbing down the steps. Her mother closed and locked the door with shaky hands. There was another way out of that cellar, it lead to the woods. She had shown Addie the way plenty of times.

Adelaide's mother, Laralyn, took her sword down from its place over the mantle with shaking hands, watching the door, waiting for someone to barge through it.

A few minutes later, someone did.

The Pale Orc. Azog the Defiler.

Laralyn stood her ground for as long as she could, giving her only child time to get out of the secret passage in the tunnel.

With one mighty swing, Azog left Laralyn to bleed out on the floor of her kitchen. He smelled the air, catching the scent of another human. He followed it to the back of the kitchen, where a door could be seen in the floor. He kicked it in, and dropped into the cellar, creating a very loud noise.

Adelaide gasped as she crawled through the passage, having heard the loud crash created by the Pale Orc. She crawled faster, getting dirt all over her hands and knees. A putrid odor reached her nose. He's following me! She thought fleetingly, crawling even faster.

She emerged in the woods, and ran as fast as she could, her blonde hair, that only reached her shoulders, was whipping behind her, her bare feet crunching on the leaves. She tripped over a root, and landed face down in the undergrowth. The sound of heavy footsteps reached her ears, and she rolled over, to see Azog standing over her.