18.
Down in Goblin Town

Aninth slept fitfully. She couldn't seem to get her mind to calm long enough to allow her to drift off. And when she did manage to drift off for a little while, the pains and aches in her body would wake her back up not that long later. She wasn't used to pushing herself this way. If she did manage to injure herself on the road, she would usually suck it up and pay for the extra time at an inn or tavern so that she could give herself time to heal.

When she did manage to drift off again to more sound slumber, she was awoken abruptly by Thorin's shouting voice. At first, she wanted to ignore it, not really hearing his words. But then they finally pushed through the tired fog in her mind and her eyes snapped open.

"Wake up!"

She had one moment for a rumbling coming from somewhere down below her to reach her ears before the floor suddenly disappeared and she was falling. Before they were all falling.

The dwarves, hobbit and human around her all cried out as they well and hit some solid rock, sliding off it before going into an open freefall again. This repeated several times and Aninth's rapidly awakening mind realized that this was obviously a trap and they were obviously falling through some sort of tunnel that was designed to lead them somewhere.

When they finally stopped, they all had fallen into a large basket of sorts in a pile. Aninth groaned and tried to turn, pain shooting up from her side.

"Ryv?" she called out. "Ygritte?"

She managed to catch sight of the blonde woman a little ways away from her just as she felt Ryvniss scramble around from her back. Then a swarm of goblins rushed them, grabbing at all of them and pulling them forward. No matter how she resisted, how they all tried to resist, there were just too many and they were pulled forward down the path.

Before long they came around a final bend and the cave opened up around them. More goblins than Aninth had ever seen in her life clung to the walls on wooden bridges and ledges, small constructed huts and the like. It gave her enough pause that the goblins were able to push her forwards much easier.

Soon, they came to the end of the path and were in front of who had to be the Goblin King. He was... well, kinda gross looking. He was much, much larger than the other goblins around and much, much fatter. He was filthy, covered in not only dirt and who knows what else but also warts, and his ratty, tattered clothes were just as gross as the rest of him.

They were forced to stand still as their weapons were gathered and thrown into a pile in front of them on the ground. The Goblin King jumped off his throne and approached them, trampling several of the smaller goblins in the process.

"Who would be so bold as to come armed into my kingdom? Spies? Thieves? Assassins?"

"Dwarves, Your Malevolence," said one of the smaller goblins. "And two women."

"Dwarves and two women, you say?"

"We found them on the Front Porch," the goblin explained to his King.

"Well, don't just stand there. Search them! Every crack. Every crevice," the Great Goblin demanded as he looked over his intruders. "Even the women. Pretty as they may be, looks can be deceiving."

The goblins howled in response and began searching the Company thoroughly, throwing away whatever they found. As the last of Aninth's weapons were pulled from her body, she could only be glad that Ryvniss seemed to be aware of what was going on and kept moving under her shirt to stay out of sight and grasp of the goblins.

"What are you doing in these parts? Speak!" The Goblin King demanded answers, and when none of them spoke, he became irritated. "Very well. If they will not talk, we'll make them squawk. Bring out the Mangler. Bring out the Bone Breaker. Start with the youngest." 

He pointed at Ori with his staff, and Aninth's face dropped into a scowl, her hands clenching into fists at the audacity of what the Goblin King was trying to do. She had half a mind to tell Ryvniss to burn the lot of them, but before she had a chance, Thorin pushed his way forward.

"Wait!"

The Goblin King looked down at Thorin. "Well, well, well. Look who it is. Thorin son of Thrain, son of Thror, King Under the Mountain." He bowed exaggeratedly. "Oh, but I'm forgetting. You don't have a mountain. And you're not a king, which makes you nobody, really."

Though it shouldn't have given it wasn't aimed anywhere near her, that comment struck a chord with Aninth, just as she was sure it did with Thorin. Her scowl dropped straight into a glare.

Not having one's home didn't mean that they were stripped of who they were. Her own people had lost one of their homes, the very same as the dwarves around her, but that didn't change who they were. All of Aninth's people were dead now but her, did that mean that she wasn't the Champion of Dragons anymore? Did that mean that her people's legacy didn't live on in her?

No. And no one else got to decide what it meant. If she still had a home to help reclaim, a legacy to carry, it meant something. As long as Thorin wanted to still be the King Under the Mountain, he would be. And he always had been.

"I know someone who would pay a pretty price for your head," the Goblin King went on. "Just a head. Nothing attached. Perhaps you know of whom I speak. An old enemy of yours. A pale Orc, astride a white Warg."

Thorin's expression turned to one of surprise and disbelief. "Azog the Defiler was destroyed. He was slain in battle long ago."

"So, you think his defiling days are done, do you?" The Goblin King chuckled, before turning to face a smaller goblin sitting in a basket and holding a slate. "Send word to the Pale Orc. Tell him I have found his prize."

The smaller goblin excessively wrote down the message on the slate as his King commanded. Then, with a cackle, he pulled on a lever, causing the basket to slide down a system of ropes and pulleys into the darkness and out of sight.

Only a few moments passed before dozens of goblins entered the throne room, carrying massive instruments of torture on their shoulders and backs, which they brought before their King, who had begun dancing and singing lustily.

"Bones will be shattered
Necks will be wrung
You'll be beaten and battered
From racks you'll be hung
You will lie down here
And never be found
Down in the deep of Goblin­-town."

A goblin stepped forward and began examining the Company's weapons. He crouched down, picking up a random sword that Aninth recognized as Orcrist, one of the swords that Thorin had taken from the troll hoard. The goblin slid it a few inches out of its sheath and then gasped in horror and threw the sword away. It landed in view of all the other goblins, and once they recognized it as well, they began to howl in fear while retreating as far away from the weapon as they could.

Even the Goblin King retreated, running toward his throne while trampling many of the goblins along the way. A finger pointed toward the weapon, he hollered, "I know that sword! It is the Goblin­-cleaver! The Biter! The blade that sliced a thousand necks! Slash them! Beat them! Kill them! Kill them all!" He pointed toward Thorin. "Cut off his head!"

The goblins sprung into action, whipping the Company with rope and leaping upon them, biting and slashing away with their sharp teeth and nails. A goblin started coming right for Aninth and she reacted quickly, letting her anger fuel her actions. She struck out with one of her clenched fists, striking the goblin right in its ugly nose. 

Blood started the gush from the wound and the goblin glared at her. She only smirked back as Ryvniss climbed up her back and over her shoulder, breathing fire right in the goblin's face.

After the goblin stumbled away from her, Aninth turned just in time to see three goblins pinning Thorin down and a fourth getting ready to strike down at him, likely to cut off his head as his king had requested. She prepared herself to help, even got ready to whistle to Ryvniss and let him know what she wanted him to do, but she never got the chance to.

A blinding light covered the area as a wind blew through, ruffling Aninth's hair and pushing the goblin's machines, the goblins and even the Gobling King away from the Company. Aninth closed her eyes and turned her head away from the light before she was blinded herself.

When the bright light faded and the wind ceased, Aninth opened her eyes and found that most of the light in the area had been snuffed out. As her eyes readjusted to the surrounding light, she realized who was walking towards them from where the light had been. Gandalf, returning to them finally, staff in one hand and his sword, Glamdring, in the other.

"Take up arms. Fight. Fight!" Gandalf shouted to the Company, and the light slowly returned, illuminating them in hues of orange.

Aninth didn't need to be told twice, quickly joining the scramble of the Company to reclaim their weapons, but once she had them back in her hands or in their sheaths on her belt, she grabbed Ryvniss from her shoulder and started heading right for the edge of the platform they were standing on.

She let a sharp, one-tone whistle, tossing Ryvniss into the air ahead of her before diving after him. He changed size below her just in time for her to land on his back and soar upwards with a victorious cry.

"Time to work for our place in this Company, Ryv."

She was going to burn this place into cinders.

Below her, the rest of the Company was fighting off goblins that tried to kill them. Even Gandalf was in battle, swinging his sword and staff around at every goblin that charged at him.

"He wields the Foe­hammer!" The Goblin King cried out from the ground, pointing toward the wizard's blade. "The Beater! Bright as daylight!"

Knowing that she'd be moving faster than the others who had to follow the paths the goblins had made, Aninth first circled back from the way they'd been brought, getting Ryvniss to burn as much as they could see. Soon, they circled back and saw that the others had started to make their way from the throne area, towards where would presumably be an exit.

As she swung by the Company, she caught the attention of a few of them, their eyes widening at finally seeing Ryvniss at full size. She wondered to herself how many of them actually knew that he could do this. She knew that a few of them had to, those that had lived with or been in battle with her family, but the younger members among them had definitely not.

Leaning down further on Ryvniss, Aninth whistled and they went faster. She was going to try and clear a path ahead if she could. 

Flying through the air after so much time spent on foot was a welcome change for Aninth, and she couldn't get enough. She continued with her whistle-commands to Ryvniss, getting him to shrink or grow as the environment around them changed. 

When the cave narrowed, she got him to shrink before growing again when it opened back up. When arrows came flying at them from the front, Ryvniss simply let out a bellow of fire and burned them to ash before they could reach them. When they came from the sides, Ryvniss would shrink so that they were no longer coming at him, and Aninth would briefly be in freefall before he grew again and caught her.

Once, she even took great pleasure in watching as goblins on either side of a narrowed part of the cave aimed their bows to strike at them as Ryvniss and Aninth would pass between them. Instead, as they approached, Aninth whistled twice and jumped, watching as the arrows sailed right through the space between her and the dragon, striking at the goblins on the other side and causing them the fall right before the Company passed by.

Below, she got sight of the Company heading across a part of the bridge that was swinging back and forth. On it, she noticed Fili, Kili and Ygritte, who was clearly injured, an arrow stuck out of her bicep. A stab of panic shot through Aninth and she turned back to help. By the time she got close, the three had gotten off, but the goblins were still on the bridge.

A sharp two-toned whistle and Ryvniss let loose an inferno, burning the bridge, the ropes suspending it and the remaining goblins. The bridge started to crumble and Aninth ducked down as close to Ryvniss as she could just as he burst through the bridge and shattered it to smouldering pieces.

"Atta boy," she said.

She kept going the opposite way of the Company for a little while, making sure that everything behind them was almost entirely reduced to ash. The paths that the goblins may have taken to continue their chase and fight were burnt out from underneath them.

Turning back, Aninth saw the Goblin King pull himself up through a part of a bridge ahead of the Company. Before they could go back the way they'd come, they were blocked in by other goblins.

"You thought you could escape me," the Goblin King said his loud voice echoing around the cave, swinging his mace at Gandalf twice, causing the wizard to stumble backwards and almost fall. "What are you going to do now, Wizard?"

Gandalf leaped forward and struck the Goblin King in the eye with his staff, causing him to drop his mace and hold his face in pain. The wizard then sliced open his belly, causing the Great Goblin to fall onto his knees while clutching his belly.

"That'll do it."

Gandalf swung his sword again, this time slicing open the Great Goblin's neck, causing him to fall down dead. His weight caused the bridge to tremble, and suddenly, the section on which the Company was standing broke away from the rest of the bridge and began sliding down the side of the cavern below.

Aninth gave another sharp whistle and turned Ryvniss into a dive to chase after them, everyone on the bridge screaming in terror as they slid downwards. The bridge they were on standing on broke apart as it slid against the stone and demolished everything in its path.

The bridge eventually slowed down before landing at the base of the cavern, breaking apart and burying the Company in the timber and wood. Gandalf was the first one to get up from the pile of wreckage and he turned around to inspect the others, ensuring their safety.

Nearly on the ground, Aninth gave a lower whistle and Ryvniss slowly started to shrink until he dropped out from under her and she landed on her feet in front of the wrecked bridge. Ygritte grunted as she climbed out from underneath the wreckage and so Aninth offered her a hand up.

"Well, that could have been worse," said Bofur.

Suddenly, the heavy corpse of the Great Goblin landed on top of the wreckage, squishing the dwarves further. They all cried out in pain, and Ygritte winced at the sound. She was grateful that she hadn't been underneath all the wreckage anymore when the body had landed on them.

"Haver! You've got to be joking!" Dwalin grunted.

"Wish you didn't hate dragons so much now?" she questioned the Company. She got a series of groans and complaints, but they only made her laugh now.

Next to her, Ygritte climbed to her feet and quickly ripped off a piece of her tunic and tied it around her bicep one-handed, using her teeth to tighten it.

As the dwarves started pulling themselves out of the rubble, Kili looked up and saw thousands of goblins running at them. He quickly shouted, alerting the rest of them, "Gandalf!"

"There's too many," Dwalin cried. "We can't fight them."

"We can buy you some time," Aninth said, looking over at Gandalf.

"No, only one thing will save us," Gandalf said. "Daylight! Come on! Here! On your feet."

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an. and that's another chapter, folks! We're so close to the end of part one it's crazy! I hope you enjoyed the chapter!!