chapter 2

She was in nondescript armor, in good shape but well used...no ornamentation besides the usual elvish embellishments, her sword well made. He watched her wipe the blade on the spider carcass with a twitch of her lips.

Was that a smile of satisfaction? He watched her clean herself with a moss green cloth she pulled from her pack. He decided she was rather pretty...for an elf...in a strong chinned, high cheek-boned way.

She turned slightly, slipped her sword into the chased leather scabbard at her side and looked him over out of the corner of her eyes. "You're a fat one," she said with that same satisfied smile.

Her smile was warm but guarded. "Be at ease dwarf, if that's what you are. You have a dwarfish look about you although you are taller than any dwarf I've seen before. I am a friend. I was just getting ready to sit down to eat when these two spiders came out of nowhere. I'm glad you showed up when you did."

She moved across the small clearing to throw some dead branches on the fire. "How about we clean this mess up and you can tell me about you?"

The comment about his excess girth stung a bit. He tightened his belt and pulled his tunic down over his belly in a vain attempt to lessen his silhouette. "Not much to tell, elf maid," he grunted as he dropped his axe and empty haversack near the campfire, "My name is Gamli Goldhammer, a dwarf lost and out of food and drink if you've any to spare. In exchange I'll gladly remove these monsters before they begin to corrupt."

Lighter now, wearing only his travel stained leather tunic and jerkin he moved to the side of the recently slain insect and, grabbing two of the bristly hind legs, dragged the carcass to the quick flowing stream at the edge of the clearing. Seeing it float away he nodded, satisfied and returned to the larger male and made equal work of it.

Wiping the ichor from his hands onto his filthy leathers he sat down near the female and watched her feed the growing fire.

"I was on my way to meet my third cousin twice removed Gimli," he spoke after regaining his breath, "I heard he had joined a group headed to fight the darkness now threatening middle earth, the rest of our clan thought him mad. Thought me mad for taking out after him. Well, mad is right...I had no business entering this wretched forest for I soon became completely lost and disoriented for I have not the sense of direction born into all dwarves."

He leaned back into one of the giant trees hovering over the flickering fire with a tired sigh and absentmindedly scratched his sizable abdomen spilled between his thighs and stretching his tunic.

"I wish that it was madness and nothing more," she replied. She appraised her fire and deemed it suitable. "But evil walks these lands and have even invaded the trees of my home." She sounded so forlorn that the dwarf almost wanted to comfort her. But she quickly straightened up from her task and gave him a glance. "You say you are hungry dwarf? I'll be back. Don't move or else the heavy magic in this forest will have you lost again."

With that she picked up her bow and disappeared between the trees. Time passed as he rested his legs and thought about his situation. He occasionally put wood on the fire to keep it going. Such a small fire was something a dwarf child could manage, but he decided to keep that to himself.