for all the gold || hobbit {completed}

chapter four - trolled

Bursting out from the undergrowth, axe drawn and shield up, I had no real idea of what to expect on the other side. The shouts ahead, the clash of iron and steel, the growls of the trolls and the anguished cries of the ponies - these only worked to heat my blood up. Was this what a battle felt like? Your heart thumping in your chest; your spit caught in your throat. It was like the feeling you get before a job - and not a legal job at that, mind you. Aye, there was fear. The same dry mouthed, dry lipped sense of foreboding. But there was something much deeper to it too. Exhilaration. This was no heist; this was no pickpocket. There'd be no need for secrecy here. I only had to throw myself into the clearing and at the first troll-like thing I could find.

There was light, at least, in the clearing the trolls had made home; unattended flames licked up the side of a great cauldron, a pot large enough for three dwarves to sit in. I had expected the trolls to be big - even the one I had seen from a distance seemed huge - yet the sight of the cauldron stunned me. I found myself still, only able to dumbly stare at it as around me, the clearing descended into a mad rush of chaos.

I had to snap out of it. Had to get my mind back into the present. Here and now. Breathe. Blink. Breathe. Blink. Blink. Ahead of me, Bofur and Nori attacked at the legs of one large, grey brute. Their mouths were moving; the troll's mouth opened to roar in pain and yet I could barely hear them. My heart pounding loudly in my ears deafened me to the worst of the din. Rather it was not the sound of its footsteps that signalled the troll running at me. Rather it was the sudden quaking of the ground at my feet.

I was the veteran of a couple fistfights, both in the Gorge and in various alleyways and dark corners. I wasn't a stranger to taking a punch, nor was I a stranger to giving a few myself. Yet these fights had all been against dwarves in various states of inebriation. Not a fully-grown, furious and fearsomely sober troll.

But, then again, never had I been in such a good position like this before: my back covered by others and a real, well-forged weapon in my hands. This was no broken bottle. No curled up fist. I had an axe, I had a shield. This would almost be too fun.

The troll above me swung his great fist, hitting me with the foulest of stenches if not immediately his fist, and went to smash my head in. Instinctively, I threw my shield up over my head and crouched low, only for the brute's fist to crash harmlessly against the rounded thing. A loud crack came from the shield, but it remained intact. The impact rather startled the beast; he roared and stumbled back, clutching his fist, into the blows of Bofur and Nori with their mattock and mace.

Spinning around, axe raised, I looked for my next target, but only caught the sight of a familiar red waistcoast and yellow breeches flashing across my peripheral vision. The hobbit at least was still alive, albeit distinctively damper and slimier than when we had last seen him. Green goo dripped from his arms as he crept past, careful to keep out of the worst of the fighting. His beady, little eyes were onto something. What was he-

"Look out," Fili's voice snapped me back into the fight, just as another grey, troll fist swung down at my head. This time, I merely ducked it easily; the brute had been distracted by the sudden appearance of Kili, sliding on his knees between the troll's legs as his sword swung out and sliced the back of the beast's knee. This troll howled, crying out again when I myself swung my arm and embedded my borrowed axe into the front of his calf. When the beast finally turned to look down at what had hit it, I was already off: following Kili out underneath the legs and onto the next troll.

This was just way too much fun, I thought, darting past the fighting dwarves and under the legs of the trolls. The great, lumbering beasts could barely keep up with us; we were all far too quick for their little brains to catch up with. Beside me, the other dwarves fought, moving instinctively as if one. Had they trained much together previously for this quest? Some of the moves they pulled could only have been predestined.