Returning Home: A Hobbit Fanfiction

Chapter 12 - The Trollshaws

~~Elena~~

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, where'd you get that knife from?" Fíli demanded, striding back over. 

Elena shifted her coat to reveal a small sheath sewn into her coat. "My coat. Why?" 

"But, but, then why did you steal mine?" he asked incredulously. 

She shrugged. "I dunno. Wanted to see if I could do it, I guess. I didn't break some dwarven code of honor, did I?" she asked, only half-jokingly. 

"It's fine," Kíli interceded. "Like I said, he's just sore cause he lost a bet, that's all." 

"Which shouldn't have even counted, considering how young I was when I said that," Fíli said, glaring at him. 

Celia rolled her eyes. "Whatever. Let's continue on with the contest, shall we?" she said, gesturing to where Bilbo was still waiting patiently.

"Yes, lets," Elena said. Nodding to Bilbo, she gestured for him to go. 

"Now keep in mind, I haven't been able to practice for a while," Bilbo warned.

"Well, then, we can see what we need to do to get you back into shape," Elena joked. 

He rolled his eyes. "I still have better aim then you," he muttered, grabbing a few of his throwing knives from his bag. 

"Yeah, that bit's really not fair," Celia complained. "You didn't even know how to throw a knife until we showed you, and yet you still have better aim than Elena, and she's been practicing for several years longer than you have!"

Bilbo shrugged. Shuffling his feet until he was in the proper stance, he sighted and threw the daggers, one after the other until they all thudded into the center of the target. Elena glared at him. Pulling out another one of her daggers, she sighted and threw, watching as it hit close to the center of the target, a short distance away from her previous throw, and the same with the one after that. 

Sighing, she muttered, "Guess I'm out of practice too." Glancing at Bilbo, she asked, "Are you all done?" 

He nodded. "Let's see how we did after weeks of no practice." Followed by Fíli, Kíli, and a few other of the curious dwarves, they walked up to the target. Two of Bilbo's knives were in the direct center, and one was slightly outside the center, whereas two of Elena's knives were close to the center, and one was on the edge of the target.

She grimaced. Carefully pulling her knives out she muttered, "I guess I'll need to practice more." 

"You know, for a halfling, you're not bad at throwing knives," Dwalin said, startling them both. 

Tensing at the unintentional insult, Bilbo quickly shook it off and reminded him, "Hobbit, Master Dwalin. We aren't half of anything. And hobbits have always had good aim. It's just part of being a hobbit, I guess." 

Dwalin nodded. Turning to Elena, he added, "While you have good technique, there's still more that you could learn to become more proficient. Practice will help, though." He tilted his head thoughtfully. "I still want to see your axe-wielding skills. Do you feel up to a bout?"

Elena swallowed nervously. "Uh, I guess? I haven't used those for a while either, so I'm going to be rusty on that, too, just to warn you." 

He shrugged. "No matter. We can fix that soon enough. I just want to see your skills, get a grasp of how good you are. Why don't you go fetch them." He nodded towards their bags. 

"Uh, sure." Elena said hesitantly, walking to her sleeping area and pulling out the sheath from next to her bag. Carefully unbending the axe from its folded-in position, she stretched it to its full length and snapped it into place. Doing the same to the other one, she handed them to Dwalin. He took them carefully, studying the mechanism that allowed them to be folded in half with interest. "It's supposed to make it easier and safer to carry," Elena explained.